Fangs: an Elite Dangerous comic

general
1

Ehh, so I made a thing.

Poster on the /r/elitedangerous subreddit posted a thread with an in-game screenshot tweaked to look like a black-n-white noir-style comic, which I thought looked really cool, and so I added some captions to it for maximum noir-osity. Then someone else posted another thread along the same lines, and I added some captions again.

But it got the creative wheels turning and I decided to comb through all the screenshots I’ve been collecting for the (eventual, I swear I’m going to finish it soon) Ars review of Elite: Dangerous to see if I could string together some kind of vague story or plot, and wound up making a 13-panel comic. Folks on Reddit seemed to like it, so I made another one today. I hosted the first one on imgur, but built a quickie site here on bigdino for a more permanent home.

So, here’s the link to Fangs, an Elite Dangerous noir-style web comic. Or, go directly to the two comics I’ve done so far:

Fangs 01: Aces High
Fangs 02: You Keep What You Kill

5 Likes
2

Lovely work, Lee. Keep it up.

3

It’s neat, although I couldn’t tell what was going on in a few spots.

4

Lee, is there a more current location for the comics? I didn’t see it back when you originally posted this and my web browser is warning the links may be an attempt to steal info.

5

Oops.

Here’s the correct new URL:

I switched over to LetsEncrypt and dumped my *.bigdinosaur.org wildcard certificate, so even though the redirect should still be working, “fangs.bigdinosaur.org” doesn’t have a valid cert anymore and will fail.

1 Like
6

Oooh, that’s neat. Discourse automatically makes a pretty box if you have correct opengraph tags set up on your site! I knew I spent all that extra time adding those tags for a reason :smiley:

7

WOOOOOO THREAD NECRO

Fangs has been through a lot, including an annoyingly loooooooong hiatus while my illustrator and I fell out of touch with each other, but we’re back on and back in production.

A quick recap, for anyone who’s interested:

Fangs is a noir-themed Elite: Dangerous web comic by yours truly. Book 1 is a series of disconnected vignettes from the Elite: Dangerous universe, and it can be read in any order because there’s no continuity. Book 2, on the other hand, tells a single story with characters and a plot.

My goal with book 2 was to try to look at the different ways men and women approach loss, grief, and memory. The book is set up by this Zora Neale Hurston quote:

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth.

I wanted to tell a story about two (hopefully) people who react in (hopefully) realistic ways to events, without falling back on (many) common scifi storytelling & character tropes. The main character isn’t a battle-hardened space marine with a dark past, or a plucky kung-fu hacker chick, or whatever. It’s just a story about two people in a mess.

Parts 1-5 of book 2 were published a couple of years ago, and although the ending has been written since pretty much the beginning, real life and other issues got in the way and the comic has been paused on a cliffhanger since 2017.

Those issues are all now resolved!

So, a link, if you want to jump in:

Fangs, Book 2

When you get to the end of part 5, make sure to click through for the finale teaser!

I hope you guys enjoy it, even folks who haven’t played Elite: Dangerous. I think there’s enough storytelling to obviate the need to be really familiar with the Elite world, but you might not understand a couple of the references (like to the Fuel Rats, an in-game playergroup that flies around refueling players who have gotten themselves stranded).

2 Likes
8

And…

IT

IS

DONE

Story is completed. Good lord, I wish that hadn’t taken two years, but it’s finally finished.

I’m tremendously proud of how well the story came out, and I hope you guys enjoy it :slight_smile:

Full story starts here.

The new stuff picks up right here.

1 Like
9

And it’s mentioned in today’s Elite Dangerous newsletter…

30

2 Likes
10

“Created my Lee Hutchinson” - lolfrontier.

Well, I’ll take what I can get, I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

11

I really enjoyed the read. Makes me want to buy/play Elite Dangerous

1 Like
12

Welp just got Elite Dangerous. its on sale on humble bundle. So i caved… may need a hotas, if i like it.

1 Like
13

As of right now, and 2 hours of play i am not sure im gonna buy a hotas…

1 Like
14

I’ve contemplated it. Flying via keyboard/mouse sucks, and doing so via Xbox One controller is doable, but a pain since you don’t have nearly enough buttons for everything, so you still need to have the keyboard at hand.

I found that VoiceAttack can kind of work for some things as a way around that (plus I was able to buy a John de Lancie voicepack for it, so I had Q snarking back at me from my ship), but it still feels a bit wonky with a controller vs a proper flightstick.

1 Like
15

Ive spent more time, and once i get a grip i think i could really love this game a lot. There is a fantastic peace to it. I do wish i could try it with a hotas before i buy one.

My Elite name is JohtoGuy if anyone wants to play with me at some point.

16

I’ve been playing Elite Dangerous for about 4 years now. (Triple Elite + King + Admiral)

I couldn’t play without a HOTAS.

17

i spent 20 minutes trying to land last night with keyboard and mouse…

18

Autodocking modules are your friend :smiley:

19

I like manual docking—it’s like the fun bonus bit of flying you get to do at the end of a long boring trade run!

Also +1 for the suggestion to get a HOTAS. Just be careful. One day you’re looking at Saiteks, debating over whether to spring for the X52 or the Pro, and then shortly after that you’re paypal-ing some Belarusian dude for custom flight pedals. And then the real crazy starts.

1 Like
20

Some one on Ars did a great article about HOTAS a few months back.

I think the HOTAS i want is Logitech G Saitek X52 Flight Control System . I again really wish i could try before i buy. I will probably get something much cheaper if i choose to keep playing.

I have that little itch in the back of my head saying, just do a couple more transport runs, get a better ship, try some dog fighting, then quit. I did a few runs last night and made 30,000cp. I think once i get the hang of not using my mouse as much it will be much better and i will get less dizzy.